Team candidate riles Mayor Derek Corrigan

Backrooms column by Dan Hilborn
Published Oct. 12, 2005


Did Andrew Stewart touch a nerve, or what?

Mayor Derek Corrigan was livid after the Burnaby NOW published his Team Burnaby rival's rather vehement attack on city council made during a campaign kickoff speech at the Metrotown Hilton late last month.

When I contacted Corrigan on another matter last Wednesday, he was particularly upset by the tone of Stewart's comments, which started off by referring to council as "smug, arrogant and complacent."

"I want to be clear, I'm not going to get into the gutter with Mr. Stewart and call him names," said the mayor. "I think it's totally inappropriate to do that. It may be the style in federal or provincial politics, but in the civic arena, we like to have a more civilized debate."

Corrigan then provided a point-by-point rebuttal to Stewart's claims, many of which were similar to comments published by his BCA compatriot Coun. Dan Johnston, council's liaison to the city finance department, in the Oct. 9 Burnaby NOW letter's page.

While I don't want to reiterate things that have already been published in this newspaper, Corrigan thoroughly debunked the claim that there had been a hiring freeze for the city's RCMP over the past decade. He pointed to the city requesting a dozen new officers in 2004, another request for a second dozen officers last year, and then the addition of 13 new civilian staff to help relieve the uniformed officers of their desk duties since 1998.

"It is completely untrue that there was a hiring freeze at the RCMP and Mr. Stewart knows that," Corrigan said. "Our difficulty in getting RCMP officers was not because of a hiring freeze. The Regina training institute had been closed down, which made it extremely difficult to get our complement of officers - not just to add officers but even just filling the existing positions."

Corrigan notes that the solicitor general of the province has publicly applauded Burnaby on several occasions for using its new traffic fine revenue to hire officers.

"And I gave credit immediately to the province for the second 12 officers coming in, because it's simply good policy to pat the government on the back," he said.

And Corrigan did not seem particularly upset about claims that he squandered the city's chance to become home to the 2010 Olympic speed-skating oval. "I refused to have Burnaby pay for any cost overruns, and I'm not apologetic over that."

Corrigan noted that SFU is currently in the process of applying for federal infrastructure grants to build a new fieldhouse complex, which is more suited to the long-term desires of both the university and city. "The idea for the speed-skating oval was to change it to a field house after the Olympics, and now as it happens, it looks like they'll get the fieldhouse anyhow. And that is an infrastructure grant that I have supported."

But when asked about the allegation that he is "arrogant," Corrigan's voice took on a decidedly softer tone. "It's hard when people call you names and don't support it with any facts," he said. "I have no idea why he's saying that. I can't think of a more accessible and accountable government than Burnaby. We welcome input of the citizens and we listen carefully to what people have to say.

"Admittedly, I do stand up for Burnaby if I feel we're treated wrongly either regionally or provincially. I will speak up. But I don't personalize those attacks with MPs, MLAs or anyone. That's not good. And I was exactly the same when the New Democratic Party was in government. I was a vocal critic of them when I felt they were working against our wishes."

Oh yeah. The race is definitely on.

THE RETURN OF TOM TAO

Tom Tao - who impressed many by garnering 2,273 votes in his bid to become a city councillor in 2002 - has set his sights on becoming mayor.

Born on mainland China, Tao moved to Taiwan where he became a prominent businessman - helping to bring an NBA basketball game to the disputed island - before attending university at Berkeley and then settling down in Burnaby seven years ago.

He sent an e-mail saying he'll be in at the Asia Pacific Cities Summit in Chongqing, China until Oct. 16, where up to 1,000 delegates from around the world will meet with the leaders of China's auto industry.

For more information, visit his website www.tomtao.com.

RENNIE MAKES THE ROUNDS

Their smiling faces may have been together on the front page of the Burnaby NOW last week, but relations between former deputy premier Christy Clark and local real estate mogul Bob Rennie may not be as rosy as they seem.

Rennie, who was being honoured by the Burnaby Hospital Foundation for helping to raise $900,000 for their capital campaign, has been quite a bit of a political multi-tasker recently, according to Vancouver Courier staff writer Mike Howell.

Rennie recently helped bankroll Vancouver NPA mayoral candidate Sam Sullivan in his bid to defeat Clark for that nomination, and then promptly joined Vision Vancouver candidate Jim Green's campaign to defeat Sullivan.

"Depending on how you look at it, he's either highly consistent or profoundly schizophrenic in his political views," Clark told the Courier. "It's curious to speculate about why someone might be concerned about who gets the NPA nomination when they're supporting Vision Vancouver. Conspiracy theories will, I'm sure, come up with lots of explanations for that."

SPEAKING UP FOR SOFTWOOD

When the House of Commons resumes sitting this week, Burnaby-New Westminster MP Peter Julian intends to hold the government's feet to the fire on four main topics - softwood lumber, a Seniors' Charter, gas prices and the misuse of taxpayer's money.

For starters, Julian wants the government to immediately halt talks with the U.S. government over plans for "deep integration" of our two nations' economies until the Americans abide by their earlier commitments on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

"The Bush administration has ripped up the dispute resolution mechanism of NAFTA which was the advantage Canadians were supposed to have," said Julian, who notes that the change in process could force Canada to continue exporting "most of our energy resources" to the U.S., even if there was a national emergency or supply shortage.

"The key here is an appalling mixed message," Julian said. "On one hand our prime minister is pontificating that he's standing up to the Bush administration and, on the other hand, they have not done one concrete thing to indicate their displeasure."

On gas prices, Julian pledged to fight for accountability and measures to protect the vulnerable, including possible changes to the act regulating the federal competition bureau.